Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/649869
John-WilliamSchiffbaueriswhatRepubli- cans, at least on paper, say they want their party to look more like. He's 31-years-old — a coveted millennial — socially liberal, fis- cally conservative and not totally white. "Mygrandmotherwasfrom Japan," he says. He's a New York City playwright who's into cool whiskey bars and heated policy debates. He sees himself as what the future of the Re- publican Party ought to be. "Did you read the GOP post- 2012 autopsy report? The 'Growth and Opportunity Proj- ect,' as it was dubbed," he asks. Yes, I answer. "That's what I wanted," he la- ments. After losing the presidency again in 2012, the Republican National Committee's autopsy was honest and brutal about the state of the Grand Old Party: "If we want ethnic mi- nority voters to support Repub- licans, we have to engage them, and show our sincerity," read the report. "We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party's appeal will con- tinue to shrink to its core con- stituencies only." The report also warns: "When it comes to social is- sues, the Party must in fact and deed be inclusive and welcom- ing. If we are not, we will limit our ability to attract young peo- ple and others, including many women, who agree with us on some but not all issues." This candor inspired John. "I'm a Jeff Daniels' Newsroom character Republican. I'm an Aaron Sorkin Republican," de- clares Schiffbauer. It gave him hope that his party understood their problems and had a blue- print on how to fix it. John was so taken by this idea of a new, diverse, more inclusive, more liberal Republican Party that he went pro. In January of 2014 he became the Deputy Commu- nications Director for the New York State Republican Party. Then at 2:21 a.m. in the morning after Super Tuesday, moments after it was apparent John Kasich split the vote in Virginia and Vermont, killing possible wins for Marco Rubio, millennial Republican Schiff- bauer emailed his boss his res- ignation and quit the GOP. If you ask him why, his answer is fittingly monosyllabic, "Trump." He quit mere days before the New York GOP State Conven- tion in Buffalo, where Trump enjoys widespread support. "I don't trust myself to keep my mouth shut," admits John. What does a party loyal- ist have against the frontrun- ner and nearly universally as- sumed nominee? "Liar. Bigot. Demagogue. Pretty much any beef the establishment has with him, given that I am 100 Percent Unapologetic Estab- lishment GOP," John contin- ues. "Also his buildings make architects and artists cry." He says he doesn't want Trump to have the nuclear codes. When he mentions "the wall" he punctuates it with the word "moron." "Show me a 20-foot wall and I'll show you a 21-foot ladder," exclaims John. He grumbles that a wall won't solve our immigration issues. "Also," he continues, "He's carpet-bombing anyone who disagrees with him." John mentions the thinly veiled threat to Paul Ryan in Trump's Super Tuesday vic- tory speech. "I'm going to get along great with Congress," Trump said to his rabid fan base. "And if I don't, he's [Paul Ryan] going to have to pay a big price." What's next for John? He says he's debating on stay- ing registered as a Republi- can and voting for Hillary, or registering as an independent and voting for Hillary. In short: He's voting for Hillary. Moments later he waffles on quitting the GOP entirely. He wants to write speeches, change his party for the bet- ter, be a part of something he believes in. He still holds out hope it's the Republican Party but, for him, it's definitely not the party of Trump. "But congratulations to you guys (Democrats)," he bris- tles. "You guys just won the White House for another four years and probably a majority in the Senate. "This is great for you guys." TinaDupuyisanationally syndicated columnist and host of the podcast, Cultish. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@ yahoo.com. TinaDupuy Quitting the Republicans Thankfulforlocalveteran services Editor: I'm writing to show my ap- preciation to the staff at the Red Bluff Veteran Service Of- fice located on Main Street. I grew up in Red Bluff, but spent the last 30 years away in the Air Force. I retired in 2014 and felt a great void between my structured military life and the real world. In the Air Force I was some- one with defined position and responsibilities, but now, just a number, until I met with Vet- eran Service Officer Kelly Os- borne and her crew at the Red Bluff office. They have been the most caring people I've met; helping me understand the transition, complete necessary VA forms and make the most of local veteran opportunities. Even though we just met last year, every time I leave their of- fice I feel as though they've been beside me my entire career. Thank you Kelly and team. Thank you Tehama County for funding her office and staff. — Patrick Skinner, Red Bluff Concerned over process to select schools superintendent Editor: I am deeply concerned about the process designed by the Te- hama County Board of Edu- cation to select a new Tehama County Superintendent. The Board is on record stating that they are using, as a template, the process designed by the El Dorado County Board of Edu- cation when they also lost a Su- perintendent due to miscon- duct in office. However, as in most things, the devil is in the detail. In fact, in El Dorado County they did an online survey of (1) county office employees, (2) school administrators, and (3) the general public. The three surveys asked similar questions and were all focused on deter- mining desired qualifications and experience in superinten- dent applicants. None of the surveys asked participants to write in the name of a person or persons they would recom- mend for the position. In the case of the Tehama County Board of Education, there are also three surveys. The survey of Tehama County Department of Education em- ployees focuses on evaluating and rating the performance of the current top management team at the Department of Edu- cation. It also asks a final ques- tion that requests the respon- dent to recommend a person or persons that possess these qual- ifications. In essence a nomina- tion or at the least a personal recommendation opportunity. The second survey was sent to all school administrators in Tehama County Public Schools. That survey also evaluated the services of the current Tehama County Department Leadership Team — Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent. Both of these surveys are a thinly disguised attempt to support the current assis- tant superintendent's candi- dacy. Almost all of the recipi- ents of these two surveys have already been successfully ap- proached by the previous Su- perintendent to provide let- ters of recommendation to the Board of Education on behalf of the Superintendent's hand- picked successor. The Admin- istrator survey also asks, "Do you know anyone that you would recommend for this po- sition that meets these quali- fications." Among members of the current management team, there will only be one candi- date. So the conclusion seems blatantly obvious. No other candidate can benefit from these surveys. A designed un- fair advantage. Finally, the third survey is focused on obtaining online in- put from the public at large. This version does indeed ask for the public to rate the top 3 desired attributes of county su- perintendent candidates in five areas. The forced choice of 3 in each category suggests that each of the five areas is equally important and thus the partic- ipant cannot truly express his/ her recommendations. Finally, on the public survey, there is no final question asking the mem- bers of the public to recom- mend the names of individu- als they know that meet these qualifications. In addition, the public was very poorly informed about the presence of and access to the survey. If you were not in at- tendance at a previous board meeting, you would not know it existed. Apparently by design, the Board of Education only wants to know the names of persons recommended for Superinten- dent by Tehama County De- partment of Education employ- ees and current School Admin- istrators but not from other school employees or the general public. For a position normally elected by the people, this pro- cess is a poor fit. This is at worst, a closed pro- cess carefully designed to de- liver a pre-determined con- clusion or at best, a botched attempt to mirror another county's selection process. In either case it needs to be scrapped and the County Board of Education needs to start over with a clean slate and an unbiased process. It is still not too late to do it cor- rectly and fairly. The citizens and schools of Tehama County deserve no less. — Bob Douglas, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take If Democrats really care about the plight of illegal immi- grants flooding our borders, they should do a better job taking care of them before they reach voting age. A recent Government Ac- countability Office investigation found the Obama administration lost track of thousands of immi- grant children captured crossing U.S. borders. According to the Washington Free Beacon, of the 53,518 children captured cross- ing the borders in 2014, federal officials only "followed up with just 2.2 percent." The investigation also uncov- ered that the Office of Refugee Resettlement "failed to prop- erly track children," endan- gering these kids and "leaving them vulnerable to abuse and trafficking." The report found some kids were handed off to folks who did not go through "vigorous background checks and may have criminal his- tories" or were "placed into homes with other illegal immi- grants and non-citizens." Way to go Democrats. And you tell us this seemingly-end- less immigration dialogue is nothing about securing votes and all about goodwill and do- ing what Jesus would do con- cerning the aliens among us. Sure. One thing's for certain: Jesus wouldn't lose them. In the Bible, Jesus tells the para- ble about a good shepherd who owned a hundred sheep but one of them strayed so he left the ninety-nine in search of the one. On a delightful side note: Al- though this truth is most likely horrifying to liberals, this scrip- ture also shows us that God loves the "One-percent" as much as he does the 99. Apparently, immigration is all about winning elections and Democrats are pulling out all the stops to just that in 2016. The Washington Exam- iner reports: "The Service Em- ployees International Union is teaming up...to convert as many of the 5 million Latino permanent residents into U.S. citizens and voters as possible before Election Day." Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill is leading the charge, telling Latinos to "get angry" over Donald Trump's supposed anti-immigrant rhet- oric. During a recent confer- ence call to rally his troops, Gutierrez trashed the GOP, suggesting Trump called "all Mexicans rapists." Addition- ally, in New York City, Demo- crats are pushing new legisla- tion to let illegal aliens vote in local elections. At the national level, the Obama administration is also do- ing its part to unravel the very fabric of America. Rather than defending one of its own agen- cies, Obama's Department of Jus- tice recently joined a lawsuit against the U.S. Elections Assis- tance Commission in an effort to stop Alabama, Georgia and Kan- sas from requiring individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship as a qualification to vote. That the DOJ chose to sup- port this outrageous lawsuit rather than defend the integrity of the voting process clearly dis- plays how far from what is right the left will go to win elections. Americans for Limited Govern- ment president Rick Manning was on-target in his response to this unconscionable power play: "Americans expect that only those eligible to exercise the right to vote will be participating in our 2016 national elections, yet the Obama Administration's lack- eys at Attorney General Loretta Lynch's Justice Department are doing everything in their power to allow their new illegal alien power base to vote." We have all witnessed the waves of illegal immigrants this administration invites with its brazen defiance of already-on- the-books immigration laws and its abject refusal to secure bor- ders in the name of national se- curity. To the left, it seems immi- gration is nothing more than a game, and illegal immigrants are the pawns they use to manipulate the system to win elections. No wonder they vehemently oppose requiring proof of citizenship or even photo IDs to ensure voting integrity. Even still, here in Amer- ica there is this thing called the rule of law whereby only citizens get to vote. Despite what Demo- crats say, that is not discrimina- tory, nor is it disenfranchising. I'm all for doing what Jesus would do, but let's begin dear Democrats, by telling the truth about why you care so much about immigration. Susan Stamper Brown Susan lives in Alaska and writes about culture, politics and current events. Contact her by Facebook or at writestamper@gmail.com. Susan Stamper Brown For Democrats, immigration is about winning elections GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS By Tina Dupuy By Susan Stamper Brown To the left, it seems immigration is nothing more than a game, and illegal immigrants are the pawns they use to manipulate the system to win elections. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, March 5, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6